Carol finds employment in the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in
Washington. It is not very elevating work but she feels that her
contact with the anxieties of men and women all over the country
was a part of vast affairs. She realizes that she can do the office
work and her housework as well. She also feels that without
interference housework, took very little time. She enjoys looking
at the buildings in Washington.

Vida's letter helps her to make the acquaintance of the Tincomb
Methodist Church members. She finds the church to be another
Main Street with the Sunday school, Sunday service and the
church suppers of scalloped potatoes and gingerbread. They give
advice just as the matrons did back home. Carol considers
joining the militant suffrage organization and going to jail.

Guy Pollock's cousin who is a temporary Army Captain takes
Carol to tea dances. He introduces her to the secretary of a
congressman. Through her Carol gets to meet commanders,
newspapermen, fiscal experts and a teacher who knows the
people in the suffrage movement headquarters. Through her,
Carol gets the task of addressing envelopes of the suffrage
movement and the friendly women include her in their group.
They sometimes get mobbed and arrested. They also take
dancing lessons and go for picnics and discuss politics when they
are free.

Through her friends Carol finds a house and a good nurse for
Hugh. She takes him for walks, plays with him and reads to him.
She is able to mix with people who talk a lot. She finds the
young girls in Washington more fashionable and more
knowledgeable than she was at their age. She admires the men
who are very easy going and confidant. They accept the
company of women naturally, without the embarrassed banter as
the men did in Gopher Prairie.

Your browser does not support the IFRAME tag.

She finds a group of ladies who think and feel like her. They too
consider towns like Gopher Prairie to be boring and make a
comfortable living in Washington. They even find time to read.
Through them she learns about many prairie towns and realizes
that in comparison Gopher Prairie appeared to be more colorful
and intellectual.

She also gets the perception that Gopher Prairie is not as
important as it thought itself to be and that it was she who gave
the Vidas and the Bogarts the power, of which she was so afraid.
She realizes that she had been as personal as Maud Dyer was.
She understands that her war was with the institutions like the
church and the country and that she could defend herself by
laughing at them without any contempt for them.